


Objective

by Fragged



Series: Interference [1]
Category: Stargate Universe
Genre: Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-11
Updated: 2014-12-11
Packaged: 2018-03-01 01:18:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2754182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fragged/pseuds/Fragged
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Because those first few weeks on the bridge, he wasn't alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Objective

“Nicholas,” she says in that melodious way Gloria had of speaking, and he wishes for the hundredth time she would take a different shape because this still _hurts_. “You need to sleep. You're human.” 

“Yes, yes,” he answers distractedly, because he is so close to finding what it is all these scientific articles and philosophical debates are about. 

“I know you're not listening,” she says. 

He flicks through a part of the database that seems dedicated to the entire political history of the Ancients. 

“You should stop by the mess hall for dinner first,” she muses. “Colonel Young will be there in about ten minutes.” 

He looks up from his monitor, and gives her a non-plussed look. “And why should I care whether Colonel Young is in the mess hall or not?” 

She gives him a small smile, the one Gloria used to give him when she knew something he didn't, and says, “You could share a meal together. It might be nice.” 

He snorts and bends down to the screen again. “Not bloody likely.” 

Five minutes later, when he looks up again, she is gone. 

\- 

“This ship is built for a crew, Nicholas,” she says. “You could at least tell Colonel Young that you've cracked the master code.” 

He massages his sore neck muscles, and gives her an exasperated look. “You know I can't tell anyone until I figure out how everything works. Do we need to have the same conversation every single day?” 

She looks at him calmly, and with a small smile she says, “He would like it here, I'm sure.” 

Rush wishes he could shut her off. Her and Franklin both, but mostly her. “Yeah, well, he can like it all he wants once I find out how the FTL countdown can be stopped.” 

She sighs audibly, and gives him a disappointed look. 

He pointedly ignores her until Franklin takes her place with his pedantic, yet slightly more useful, commentary on the necessity of parameters and limitations that Rush has no way of defining. 

-

“There was nothing I could've done for Riley. Stalling Destiny any longer wouldn't have helped him.” 

“I know.” She sounds disappointed, and for a second he hates her. 

“What, you think I don't know all of this is my fault? I was trying to save lives. All of our lives, not just my own,” he tries to explain. “This database just confirms what I knew all along. This ship is named Destiny for a reason.” 

She doesn't say anything, but her face tells him loud and clear that she strongly disapproves of him. 

Fine. Let her.

Rush goes back to raking through the database, and ignores her. 

-

“He would look good here, in the command chair, don't you think?” she asks him, and the conspiratorial smile on her lips feels like a knife lodges right under his heart. Gloria used to smile at him like that a lot, when they first started seeing each other. As they grew older, as the cancer wore her down, she became more solemn. Her wisdom and beauty had only intensified with age, but that smile... it takes him right back to the early years, when all their worries turned out to be like the tiny pinpricks of a sleeping limb in hindsight. 

“Who would?” he asks, already burying the wave of emotion her smile had caused. 

“You know who would,” she says, and it's not that he doesn't know she's talking about Colonel Young (that's all she ever seems to talk about), but does she really have to be so fucking cryptic all the bloody time?

“You know what I think? I think you have no idea what I'm trying to do here, so instead you waste both of our time making one inane comment about Colonel Young after another.” 

She gives him a chastising look. “I know what you think you're doing here, Nicholas. I simply don't agree with your methods.”

“Yes, you've made that abundantly clear, thank you.” 

“Then let me reiterate: working together _with_ Colonel Young instead of against him would benefit both you and me, and our mission.” 

Rush grasps his own hair and pulls at it in frustration. “I don't know how to make this any clearer, but Colonel Young is _not fit for this job!_ He can barely put on his shoes in the morning!”

“I disagree. I think you should cut him some slack.” 

“And _I_ think you should leave me alone and start bothering _him_ if you like him so much.” 

“You know I can't materialize outside of the bridge. Don't be petty, Nicholas.” 

Rush throws up his arms and whirls back towards his monitor. 

-

“You're angry,” she says, and he can hear the fucking amused undercurrent in her voice. 

“You're damn right I'm angry! Who does he think he is, denying me the right to go aboard the seed ship? He has no idea what he's doing, and meanwhile I could be missing something important!” 

“I think he knows what he's doing. He knows you're lying about something.” 

“So what, he's punishing me?” 

She gives him a serious look. “This wouldn't have been an issue if you had been honest with him.” 

He takes the very deliberate time to look up from his console and glare at her. 

-

“You can't keep this up, Nicholas,” she says. “You look exhausted. It's wearing you down, this pretending to do your job while discovering Destiny from the inside.” 

Rush rubs at his neck. His shoulders are killing him. “I'm not _pretending_ to do my job. I'm doing both.” 

She gives him a little half smile. “You're only strengthening my argument, you know. When was the last time you slept more than three hours?” 

He shoots her a look. “Yes. Well. I can sleep when I'm dead, and all that.” 

Her face draws into a worried frown. “Please, Nicholas. Please tell Colonel Young before he finds out another way.” 

“I've told you, I can't.” 

“I understand that you're worried about telling him; he will most likely be angry.” Rush scoffs at her, he's not _scared_ of Young. “But it will be so much worse if he finds out from someone else. You realize that, don't you?” 

He sighs. “At least this way I have time to get as much in order as possible before everyone finds out and starts pushing buttons.” 

“Colonel Young could help you. He could make sure no one touches anything they're not supposed to. He would give that order, for you.” She gives him an intense look that he's not sure how to interpret. 

“Clearly you and I know very different versions of the Colonel.” 

“You think he wouldn't help you? That he wouldn't care about the mission?” 

Rush shakes his head and looks out of the front window into the galaxy before him. “All he cares about is getting everyone on board back to Earth. He wouldn't care about anything as esoteric as complexity in the structure of the background radiation. He can't shoot or punch it, after all.” 

She looks disappointed. “I think you're wrong. He might surprise you.” 

“Look, I'm not going to risk everything on the off-chance that he might be up to the task of heading this mission.”

“You stack the deck against yourself, and when everything collapses around you, you feel justified in your skepticism.” 

He's not quite sure how to respond to that, so he bends over his console and runs an efficiency diagnostic on one of the main thrusters. 

She sighs, but she leaves him alone for the rest of the night. 

-

“He's not convinced, Nicholas,” she says from the seat behind him. He hasn't seen her in two days, but apparently his hope that she might have left for good was in vain. “Colonel Young. Your math corridor was a nice ploy, but he knows you're still hiding something.” 

Rush shrugs and massages his neck. “That might've been more impressive if it wasn't his default state of mind. He always thinks I'm hiding something.” 

She chuckles. “His suspicious nature when it comes to you has served him well, though. Hasn't it?” 

“I'd rather he focused his attention on something more helpful, actually.” 

“Maybe he could, if you told him the truth?” 

He rolls his eyes. Of course they're back to this. 

“You're more compatible than you think. You and Colonel Young,” she says. 

He huffs out a breath. “You don't say.” 

“And just think of how much easier everything will be once he stands beside you, instead of opposed you. How much better it will be.” 

“You say it like that's a realistic outcome. I don't share that view.” 

She smiles at him. “Yes you do. Part of you hopes for it, at least.” 

He doesn't reply and looks back down at his monitor again. 

“Do you find him attractive?” she asks suddenly. 

He whips his head around and looks at her incredulously. “What?” 

“Colonel Young. Don't you think there's something attractive about him?” 

He groans and rubs his hand over his forehead. Of course Destiny has developed a crush on Young. Because why the fuck not. 

“No, I can't say that I do,” he grinds out. “But this does explain why you can't stop talking about him.” 

She laughs softly, and leaves him to his work. 

-

“He finds _you_ attractive, you know,” she says the next day. 

Rush considers playing dumb, but he knows she'll see right through it. “Is that so,” he says. 

She nods slowly, and like an afterthought she says, “He spends an inordinate amount of time watching you.” 

“Yes, he keeps an eye on me, because he doesn't trust me.” 

She smiles. “Maybe that's why he started, but it's more than that.” 

He rolls his eyes.

“When you're in the same room, it's almost like there's a gravitational pull between you two. Don't tell me you haven't noticed?” 

He sighs and shoots her an annoyed glare. “If your goal is to make my interactions with the Colonel even more uncomfortable, you can stop now.” 

She chuckles and shakes her head. “I just think that all the unresolved tension between you two could result in something other than violence and anger, if you let it.” 

He gives her a look that hopefully portrays 'what the hell is the matter with you?'. 

She refuses to blanch, and just keeps staring at him calmly. 

He throws up his hands. “You want me to fuck Young?!” 

She grimaces at him. “I did not say that, Nicholas.” 

“Although it's interesting that _that's_ where your mind went,” Franklin says from the corner of the bridge. 

“This is bloody ridiculous,” Rush says, and storms out in a huff. 

-

“What are you doing to him?” he asks as soon as he enters the bridge. 

She turns around in her chair and gives him a blank look. “What makes you think I'm doing something to him?” 

“It's some sort of test, isn't it?” He sits down in the command chair and pulls up the currently active simulation program. “Are you trying to break him?” 

“If I didn't know better, I'd say you were upset, Nicholas.” 

“Well, then it's good you do know better, isn't it.” The program is huge, and he needs to figure out a way to override it without potentially causing a number malfunctions in any of the systems the simulation is entangled with. “What I want to know is why you think it's a good idea to keep pushing his already tenuous grasp on sanity past the point of no return.” 

“What does it matter, if he is not the right man to lead our mission?” 

It is discomfiting to see an entity wearing Gloria's kind face being so cold-hearted. Gloria was one of those rare people who literally wouldn't hurt a fly. She used to spend absurd amounts of time ushering flies out of opened windows, rather than swat them. 

Yet he can't deny the truth in her statement. Colonel Young isn't fit for the job, Rush has said it himself more than once. But if Young has a mental break, who would come in his place? Lieutenant Scott, most likely. And that boy is still wet behind the ears. He obviously means well, but he lacks even the most basic experience to lead a mission of this magnitude. No, having Scott in charge would be even worse than Colonel Young. 

It pains him to admit it, but while Young is certainly not the best man for the job, perhaps he is the best man on board. 

Right. Well.

So he needs to figure out how to stop the simulation, but he also needs to find a way to get Young to regain his footing. The man won't even come out of his quarters anymore, for God's sake. That might be where Lieutenant Scott's natural abilities can be put to use. Yes. If anyone can rouse the Colonel from his stupor, it will be the surrogate son. And it won't be difficult. Just from the top of his head he can think of three ways to get the boy to do what he wants, without him ever knowing it. 

Yes, Rush has decided. He'll take Camile with him for optimal impact. 

He leaves the bridge as abruptly as he entered it, and doesn't look back. 

He doesn't see her smile. 

\- 

“So,” she says. “He's back.” 

Rush ignores her. 

“Like a phoenix risen from the ashes,” she muses. “Back where he belongs. All thanks to you.” 

He shoots her an irritated glare. “Yes, all thanks to me,” he says sarcastically. 

She gives him a warm smile, like she's proud of him. “I knew you'd save him.” 

“I decided a barely-functioning Young is better than one suffering a psychotic break. My motives were entirely utilitarian, I assure you.” 

She chuckles. “Of course.” 

He crosses his arms over his chest. “I regret it already. I can't even spend five minutes up here without him harassing me about where I've been.” 

The smile falters from her face. “I know I've said it before, but you really need to tell him. As soon as possible.” 

His radio crackles before he can even answer her. _“Rush, this is Young. Come in.”_

“I will,” he says to her. “Soon.” He's not sure whether he means it. 

As he makes his way out of the bridge, Young's voice sounds from his radio again. 

_“Rush, where the hell are you? You're needed in the control interface room.”_

-

It isn't until a week after their fight on the abandoned ship that Rush has a moment by himself on the bridge again. Everything is different now. Young knows. Mandy is dead. 

“Oh, Nicholas,” Gloria says mournfully. “You look terrible.” 

“Thanks,” he responds dryly. 

“I know what you're about to do.” Her voice is soft. 

“I figured out how to turn you and Doctor Franklin off, yes.” 

“I wish you wouldn't.” 

He feels a pang of guilt, but he ignores it. “If it means anything, you were right. I should've told him a long time ago.” 

She gives him a sad smile. “Despite everything that has happened, he wants to trust you, you know.” 

He turns his head away. 

“Please listen to me, Nicholas,” she says with dark eyes. “He needs someone to lean on, and so do you. Learn to trust him, he's the best you've got here.”

“I'm trying.” 

She smiles at him, and puts her hand on top of his. It passes right through his flesh, of course, but he can almost imagine the warmth of her skin. 

“I'll always be here, if you need me.” 

He gives her a small nod, and types in a string of code to deactivate her program. 

“Goodbye,” he says, and with the final press of a key, she's gone.


End file.
